Shopping with Children

MY GOODNESS! So! With the craziness of the past two weeks our food supply has pretty much gone down to zero. So I figured since this is Theo's long week of work (meaning he's only off Wed/Thur) I had to do it myself. So....I take Collin to go get his xray. Done! In and out in an impressive/painless 15 minutes! I'm feeling GOOD! Move on to shopping at Aldi. Yes! We shop at Aldi. I know it's not a name brand store, but it's within our budget and what we can afford. We cannot buy everything from there but we get most of our stuff from there. Being that we were down to zero I got two carts. Collin in 1 and Isaiah in the other. Anyone who's ever had little one's (especially two boys) close together can probably guess how I was doing in the store. Struggling to steer/drive both carts, trying to keep the boys in order, trying to get everything I need...etc. I'm working up a good sweat by the 2nd isle. Anywho! I'm in the last isle. In the freezer section. Isaiah starts laughing and talking pretty loudly about butts. I politely remind him that it's not appropriate to speak like that. Meanwhile Collin is reaching for something he's not supposed to and I tell him to keep to himself. His response was "I did!" and I firmly quietly remind him that his answer should only be "Yes Momma!" A lady with sunglasses stops and says "Bravo! The way you are speaking to your children is unbelievable." Because I couldn't see her eyes I was confused for a minute....she continued on about how she really was impressed with how I was handling everything and how well I spoke to my boys. How I actually bothered to correct them. I was completely flattered. I worry all the time about keeping them under control, getting what I need to get done and keeping my emotions in check. Cause lets face it, shopping with toddlers is emotional. Haha! Anyways, I thanked her. And she thanked me for raising children who are so well behaved. So by this point Isaiah is out of the cart and I now have two pretty full carts. I let a few people in line in front of me because I knew I had a crap ton of stuff. I start loading my stuff from the first cart onto the belt. Isaiah is behind with the 2nd cart. A lady comes up and asks in a really rude way "Is this yours too?!?!" I replied that it was. She rolled her eyes at me. Seriously?! Meanwhile I'm in a full on sweat trying to unload all of this stuff, keep the boys in line and make sure I have my purse. Just in case anyone knows...Aldi doesn't bag your stuff for you...it's all piled into the cart and then you can bag it yourself. So, I finally make it to the next cart. Unload that. The lady behind me is giving me quite an attitude. Mind you she didn't come up until AFTER I had already started checking out. Too late to let her in front of me. Get through the check-out process. At some point another register had opened and multiple people had checked out. As I'm trying to wheel to heavy full carts out to the parking lot....through a tight space because someone didn't put their carts up against the counter etc....a lady rudely says "You do a whole months shopping?!" Uhm...so what if I do?! It really aggravated me. Instead of saying...here, let me move my cart out of your way or GO MOM she chooses to criticize with her tone. Seriously?! I wheel, with quite difficulty, out to the car. Isaiah gets in and I make Collin stay in the cart since it's warm out. Here's where I'd like to take a quick break and say...I LOVE MY NEW CAR!!!!!! It has underneath storage. I used that space to put all the chips/bread/eggs all the breakables that always seem to get squished, in! It was AMAZING! But anyways, then I had to proceed to put all the stuff in my reusable shopping bags. So I eventually move Collin to his seat and continue bagging everything and putting it in the trunk. I notice the same lady who rolled her eyes at me earlier, walk by with a scoff. And a few other people walked by like "Why in the world does she have 2 carts?!" After I'm in the car heading toward Meijer to get the food Collin can eat, I start thinking about the small looks and comments. Why was I judged for doing my shopping at Aldi? Why was I being judged for shopping for a month. Instead of offering a helping hand, I got so many nasty looks...as if I shouldn't buy as much as I was buying. How did they know I didn't have more children at home? How did they know it was maybe only 1-2 weeks worth of food for my family? Why would they make that judgement? Why can't a busy mom go into the grocery story and buy what she needs and that be that? It opened my eyes a bit. Because even though I've never been upset over how much a person buys, I've made judgements on people shopping and what they're buying. I don't know their circumstance. I'm always more compassionate for other Mom's out there. I always make an effort to open a door or let them know their kid dropped their binky. Today, with all the exhaustion/frustration/work I could've used someone to say "Hey! While you're unloading that cart, I'll help unload this one!" Or talked to my boys like they were human beings and not a nuisance. I'm SO very glad that one lady was nice enough to compliment me, because had she not...I probably would've ended up crying. I had to do all of that then come home and unload and put all of it away. People, let us remember that we don't know everyone's circumstances. Some of us don't have husband's who are home every evening and weekend to help out. Some of us are single parents (I don't know HOW y'all do it!). There's so many different circumstances.......something as simple as the grocery store...shouldn't be a judgment zone. haha Anyways, that's my rant. This started as a Facebook status and got too long so now it's a blog post. Grocery shopping with two boys (young in age and 17mo apart) is not a bucket full of cherries my friend. Lend a helping hand to the next struggling Mom you come across! :-)